Forest Knolls, CA Yesterday Afternoon, environmental
groups filed suit in federal district court in San Francisco against the
federal government for failing to close portions of the California drift
gillnet fishery during an El Niño year. During these weather conditions,
endangered loggerhead sea turtles are more abundant along Californias
coast and more likely to get entangled and drown in the gillnets. Despite
a previous determination that closing the fishery south of Point Conception
from August 15 to August 31 and from January 1 to January 31 during El
Niño conditions is necessary to prevent "jeopardy" to
the species, the government allowed the August closure period to come
and go with no action. With the January closure period rapidity approaching,
the Center for Biological Diversity and the Turtle Island Restoration
Network filed suit seeking an injunction to force the Bush Administration
to adhere to the requirements of the Endangered Species Act.

We are simply asking the government to play by
it own rules. Either it closes the fishery or we get the courts to,
said Brendan Cummings, attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity.
We refuse to let sea turtles become the victims of bureaucratic
footdragging.

In October 2000, National Marine Fisheries Services
(NMFS) own Biological Opinion called for this El Niño closure,
but rules were not proposed for two years. A coalition of sport fishing
and environmental groups repeatedly has urged the NMFS to finalize this
rule. The opinion calling for the El Niño closure was developed
in response to a previous lawsuit filed by Turtle Island Restoration Network
and Center for Biological Diversity.

As early as March 2002, the National Oceanographic
and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that El Niño conditions
were developing in the Pacific. Nevertheless, the August closure period
for the Fishery required by a 2000 Biological Opinion was never implemented.

In June 2002, the Turtle Island Restoration Network
and the Center for Biological Diversity formally notified the National
Marine Fisheries Service they would sue if the closures to protect loggerhead
turtles were not implemented.

On September 20, 2002, NMFS issued a proposed rule
to implement the loggerhead closure. On November 7, 2002, NOAA announced
that the El Niño condition was gaining in strength and that there
would be basin-wide mature El Niño conditions during December
2002-February 2003.

On November 20, 2002, in response to an inquiry from
the environmental organizations, NMFS indicated that the proposed rule
closing the Fishery during El Niño events would not be finalized
in time for it to be operative during the January 2003 closure period
required by the Biological Opinion.

Drift gillnet fishing vessels currently are allowed
to fish from August 15 to January 31. The rule shortens the season to
September 1 to December 31 during El Niño years, because changes
in ocean currents bring warmer waters and more loggerhead turtles north
to southern California and into harms way.

This closure will effect the 81 boats that still are
permitted to use drift gillnets, which are commonly called curtains of
death because they drift below the surface and entangle and kill everything
in their path. The boats still will be able to fish during that time.
They just will have to do it north of Point Conception, which lies west
of Santa Barbara near Lompoc and marks the edge of Southern Californias
waters. The California/Oregon gillnet fishing industry fishes for swordfish
and shark, both of which are threatened by overfishing pressures. High
seas drift gillnets have been banned by the United Nations.

The case was assigned to Magistrate Judge Joseph Spero.
The case number is C-02-5643-JCS. A copy of the complaint can be found
at www.biologicaldiversity.org. Further information on loggerhead sea
turtles and the drift gillnet fishery can be found at www.seaturtles.org.